Don Quixote versus Oedipus - Essay Example

His desire to serve humanity through the adoption of knightly ways makes him more physically present than the older presentations of heroes derived from oral tradition, such as Gilgmamesh, Achilles, Oedipus, Sancho Panza, and Hamlet. This paper makes a comparison of Don Quixote and Oedipus as a true hero from oral tradition, highlighting the main differences in their characters. Cervantes’ Don Quixote has been considered as a disarmingly uncomplicated character by many authors and critics. Bandera (16), while contrasting Don Quixote with Oedipus, the Greek King, writes that “…as I would rank the poet Sophocles as the clearest and the most dramatic representative (and representer) of the sacrificial mind, I would rank the poet Cerventes as the clearest poetic, that is, novelistic, representative of the nonsacrificial Christian mind.

Although Sophocles’ Oedipus and Cervente’s Don Quixote both face the same kinds of problems, and possess the same kind of goals of eliminating the ill from the cities, yet neither one of them has been able to reveal the problem entirely. The difference is that Sophocles has made Oedipus hide the truth adequately which resulted into his tragic expulsion; while, Cerventes made Don Quixote reveal the truth sufficiently which resulted into getting him saved in a persuasive Christian manner. This may be traced back to what Bandera wrote about them; that is, Oedipus is a sacrificial character, while Don Quixote is a nonsacrificial respresentation of brevity and good.

Perhaps, this is why Don Quixote comes out as more physically present for the people of today, because they can relate to the nonsacrificial nature of human mind. Sophocles made the mimetic show win over the bitter truth; while Cerventes made the truth win over the mimetic act. Oedipus lost everything, and became a polluted figure in front of his followers. He did not know that the man he killed was his father; the women he married was his mother; or, the felony that had struck his village was due to his misdeed.

This conveys the message that man is often unaware of his misdeeds, and what he thinks is right is often times wrong in actual. And when his fate turns the tables over him, then he realizes his mistakes but it becomes too late for such catharsis. “To this guilt I bore witness against myself-/ with what eyes shall I look upon my people” (Sophocles 70), shows that the riddle of existence is overpowered by guilt and shame. The author has tried to end human overweening with punishment from God in the story.

In short, man thinks of himself as the biggest solver of all riddles, like Oedipus was known to have solved the riddle brought forward by the Sphinx; yet, man is not able to solve the riddle of his own life, like Oedipus was not able to solve the riddle of existence as he could not straighten the things out which went wrong after the realization of his misdeed. Sophocles’ expulsion of Oedipus can be studied in contrast to Cerventes’ acceptance of victim, where mad Don Quixote is trapped in order to save him from his madness or, in other words, he was trapped to make him free in actual.

Unlike Oedipus, Don Quixote starts out as a strange and lonely figure, ending up as a wretched and endearing old man, fallen victim by his potency and courage. The more physical representation of Don Quixote’s character can be attributed to the presence of storytelling in a way that the fashion of storytelling makes the character and his imagination of good and ill more sensible and understandable. Cerventes has put forth the character of Don Quixote in an